Nokia Asha 502 -The tiny preeminent

Mobile phone buyers in different continents are now used to being bombarded by cheaply priced phones that look ugly or simply bland. However, the Asha phones from Nokia have effortlessly bucked this trend and how. Most of the Asha siblings are not priced more than 100 dollars, including pre-subsidy. However, none of the Asha phones feel or look cheap. The Nokia Asha 502 is an excellently designed entry level Smartphone that shares a lot in common with the Asha 503 and the Asha 500.

Build

The Asha 501 from Nokia featured a solid color scheme and it also had an uncanny resemblance to the much popular Lumia range of Nokia, owing to the vivid CMYK shells. The Asha 402 builds on this by implanting the vibrantly colored plastic material in a transparent outer body. Seeing the outer design, the Asha 502 looks as if it is enveloped in an ice case. The outer husk leaves the phone shining and glistening.

The Asha is colorful and compact and comes brilliantly encased in a construction that looks like sheer glass. The Asha 502 is one of the latest additions to Nokia’s lineup of cost-effective, entry-level Smartphones. With the pricing and the features offered, the Asha 502 is clearly directed at developing and emerging global markets. The Asha 502 is likely to sport a price tag of 89 dollars.

Nokia is expecting to launch the Asha 503 in 2013’s fourth quarter. Also, the Asha 500 is expected to follow closely and is likely to be launched in 2014’s first quarter. It comes somewhat as a disappointment that buyers in the US will not be able to lay their hands on the Asha phones any time soon. Nokia has no plans to launch the Asha siblings in the US market anytime soon.

Design

Apart from white and black, the Asha 502 will be available in saturated and bold colors like cyan, green, red and yellow. The Asha 502 sports a distinctively rectangular shape and sports sharp corners and edges. It comes as quite interesting to see that this Asha phone features clear, unique-looking plastic casing around its vibrant shell. This makes it look as if it is embedded in ice. This certainly adds to the heftiness of the Asha 502. But, the frame certainly strengthens the durability of the handset and also renders a sturdy frame to the phone.

In the looks department, the Asha 502 is not quite different from the 501. The only striking exception is that the 502 features the rather interesting polycarbonate transparent layer that surrounds the usual colored case of the phone. Indeed, this design looks refreshing and the additional casing also slows down the wear and tear of the standard casing.

The Asha 502 is quite portable, even though it sits on a slightly heavier side. However, it is extremely effortless to navigate the device using a single hand. The Asha 502 packs in a faintly larger screen than the Asha 500. It has a 3-inch touch screen which looks absolutely stunning. Nokia’ has provided minimum aesthetics to the phone. The power button and the volume rocker are exactly of the same color as that of the phone’s body. A single home button sits below the phone’s display screen and looks brilliant on the device’s front panel.

Features and key components

The Asha 502 is a 2G-enabled Smartphone and packs in a 1,010 mAh, less powerful battery backup. However, the Asha 502 features a 5 megapixel primary shooter equipped with LED flash that takes some stunning pictures. The Asha 502 is a dual-SIM phone and also supports additional memory storage capacity of up to 32 GB.

The Asha 502 is a GSM device and runs on Asha 1.0 operating systems, a Nokia’s proprietary. It also features the Nokia Xpress web browser. This browser loads bare-bones, simplified versions of various web sites. However, Flash is not supported by this browser. 10 free games from the app store of Nokia and Bluetooth 3.0 also make a way to the Asha 502.

The Asha 502 impresses its potential buyers with a 3.0-inch, 320×240 pixels (QVGA) display. The Nokia v1.1 operating system platform is the latest one and also features Swipe UI. The Asha 502 also supports WhatsApp messenger and users get Nokia Music free for a period of 3 months.

Pricing

In India, the Nokia Asha carrying a price tag of between Rs 5300 – Rs. 5,700 and one can buy from various online retailers. It is provided with 500 MB of free to use 2G data per month for a period of 3 months, but for Idea users.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that the Asha series from Nokia does not boast of all bells and whistles, something which high-end smartphones boast of. However, one should keep in mind that the Asha phones have been engineered for the developing and emerging markets. The low spec of the Asha 502 now withstanding, this device excellently retains a tough build quality and delivers impressive performance. What is even more significant is that the device features the fundamental and necessary features that enables the user to stay connected at all times, which includes texting and data connectivity features. The Asha 502 comes at an attractive price of 89 dollars, this device indeed takes ahead Nokia’s aim to put a stylish, feature-packed phone in every individualhand.

One also cannot argue that in the feature department, the Asha phones are not competing even with the low-level, cheaply priced Android prices. However, the Asha OS by Nokia does look promising and has its own hold and appeal. The home screen system of the phone, that echoes the MeeGo, is divided into a standard app launcher and there is the ‘Fastlane’. The Fastlane helps the user view the recent activities, apps, multimedia and messaging options uses. The Fastlane also allows the user to interact with the recently used activities in a hassle-free way. So, a user can reply to any message directly from the Fastlane. He/she can also manage music playback without having to navigate to the music app every time.